The Case of the Cotton Candy Thief
by Tactition101
Summary: An SI does not appreciate someone stealing his hard work before the others can enjoy it.


The Case of the Cotton Candy Thief

Story Start: The Thousand Sunny, Some Time After Wano, Night Time

Robin: Coffee

Carrot: Carrots

Franky: Cheeseburger

Brook: Curry

Jinbe: Salmon*

Luffy: Meat (Steak)

Zoro Sashimi

Nami: Tangerines

Usopp Pike

Sanji: Spicy Seafood Pasta

Chopper: Chocolate

Daniel Richardson, Gunman and Chemist expert of the Straw Hat Pirates looked at the list he had compiled two days ago. After visiting an island that had a good grocery store on it today, he finally had everything he would need to make cotton candy that was personalized for everyone on the crew using the cotton candy machine that he had jury rigged with Usopp and Franky's help. Needless to say, Chopper was rather excited when he had gotten his favorite flavor for this little endeavor.

But before he got started, a thought drew Daniel up short. This crew was the Straw Hats, they had a World Class Thief, a Former Assassin that also specialized in getting in places where she wasn't supposed to, a true glutton who would eat anything even off someone else's plate, and a Doctor who's epitaph was cotton candy lover. There was a good chance that SOMEONE would get greedy, even the rest of the crew wasn't above suspicion. Daniel fully planned to lock all of the cotton candy up when he was done making it until he gave it to each member after lunch but just in case, he should probably add a little extra something to the mixes.

Time Skip: After Lunch

Daniel scowled fierce enough to make Severus Snape proud. The rest of the Straw Hats were nervously sweating as they stood in a line in front of him, even Jinbe looked nervous as he began pacing in front of their line and said "Straw Hats, there is a traitor amongst this crew. Someone who has allowed their greed to deny their Nakama the chance to enjoy a special treat custom made for each and every one of you. One of you has broken into MY workshop, disabled the lock on my cabinet safe, and _stolen_ every wisp of cotton candy I made last night." Stopping in the middle of the line and swiveling to face them, Daniel continued "And we WILL learn who this absolute scum bag is, right here, and right now."

Gaining an evil grin that had the crew take a collective nervous swallow, Daniel said "I had a feeling something like this would happen so I added a little something into each crew member's cc mix. Nothing that would take away from the flavors I put in mind you, in fact I doubt even Sanji would have realized what was in his portion." Sanji looked mildly angry at that challenge to his culinary skills but Daniel ignored him as he whipped out eleven oral testing sticks with Q-tip ends and said "That little something was a bit of a chemical that when exposed to the proper solution turns blue. A solution that these have all been soaked in. I am going to go down the line and test each and every one of you, anyone who refuses will be considered as the de facto criminal and will be punished as such."

Walking over to Luffy who was on the right end of the line, Daniel banished the testing stick and said "We'll start with you Captain, open your mouth."

Luffy gave a nervous swallow but readily opened his mouth. The fact that he HADN'T been letting off his rather horrible tells while Daniel spoke meant that for once in his life the captain PROBABLY wasn't the thief, but the gunman was taking no chances and so gave the inside of his mouth a good swabbing before pulling it out. Studying the Q-tip from every angle, Daniel said "Huh, would you look at that, you're actually clean."

"Whoo!" Luffy gave an explosive sigh of relief causing Daniel to huff before he moved to Sanji who easily opened his mouth for testing. He too was clean, as was Carrot, Jinbe, Usopp, Brook, Zoro, and Franky.

Robin was clean as well, merely smiling coyly at Daniel as he examined her swab and said "A chemical compound that shows up when mixed with another one. My, you really are a paranoid one aren't you Mr. Richardson?"

"Considering we are here right now, I call it having a proper working knowledge of this crew." Daniel said shortly.

"Fair enough." Robin said, still smiling.

Putting away the clean Q-tip, Daniel turned to the last two members he needed to check and said "And now we get to the last two members of my Top 3 suspects."

Nami had a poker face that would have had her banned in all of the casinos in Vegas. Even with the single bead of nervous sweat, she put up a strong front. Chopper however was sweating nervously so much it was clear even with his fur. Narrowing his eyes, Daniel held the Q-tip in front of Nami and said "Open."

Nami opened her mouth and Daniel swabbed her mouth. When he pulled it out, she said "Come on Daniel, do you really think I would steal everyone's cotton candy when it wasn't all a flavor I like?"

"Maybe, but I'm willing to bet you would steal it for the batches that were to your liking." Daniel said with a scowl before twisting the Q-tip. It was barely there, but there was a single blue dot on the side of the testing device. Nami went pale as Brook as he continued "Knowing that I'm a chemist, you probably tried to wash your mouth out after enjoying your spoils."

"I knew it. Once a thief, always a thief." Zorro growled out, thumb flicking Shisui's blade out of its sheath a little. Even Sanji had a betrayed look on his face as he stared at his Nami-Swan. Nami chuckled nervously for a moment before she tried to bolt. Tried being the key word here given that Carrot leapt onto her back. This coupled with Robin tripping her with a pair of arms on the deck grabbing her ankles meant that Nami wasn't going anywhere.

Before the others could join in though, Choppers loud sigh of relief and Daniel's statement of "Oh, you're not getting out of being tested just yet Chopper." drew everyone's attention back to the duo.

"W-what? Why?! The thief has already been caught!" Chopper said, waving his arms around wildly.

"Then you should have nothing to worry about, right Doctor?" Robin said sweetly even as arms wrapped around his body, strong as steel bands and another pair of hands forced his mouth open.

"Thank you Robin." Daniel said with a nod to said Archeologist, getting a beautiful smile in return as he swabbed Choppers mouth. Pulling the Q-tip out, he and the others all scowled at the completely blue end and he said "So. You got Nami to open my safe for you, letting her have hers and at least one other person's batch as payment while you took the rest. And unlike her, you didn't think to clean out your mouth."

"Cho-bro, _how could you_?!" Carrot asked, looking like Chopper had killed a whole litter's worth of puppies in front of her. That horror soon turned into rage and Chopper started blubbering as she hopped off of Nami's back and made her way to her self appointed brother. The rabbit mink grabbed Chopper by the arms and lifted the reindeer up in the air and began rapidly shaking him as she said "Do you know how hard it is to get cotton candy in Zou?! And this was going to be **CARROT** flavored!"

Nami tried to use Carrot's distraction to crawl away, but there were now three sets of feet in front of her. Looking up, she gulped when she saw the unimpressed looks on Luffy, Zorro, and Usopp's faces as Zorro asked "And where do you think _you're_ going?"

"Eh, heh. Parley?" Nami asked with a scared smile.

As the two traitors got their comeuppance, Daniel sighed and made his way back to his lab as he muttered to himself "This is why I got enough to make more than one batch for everyone."

"Smart." Sanji said with a nod of his head as he made his way to his own lab, aka the kitchen to begin working on a snack to tide Carrot and Robin over as Daniel got to work. Nami for once wasn't going to be getting anything from the chef this time, and didn't THAT show how disappointed in her the chef was?

Shaking his head with a chuckle at that thought, Daniel closed the door to his lab and made doubly sure that it was locked before rolling his sleeves up to his elbows and making his way to his jury rigged cotton candy maker. Hopefully THIS time everyone would actually be able to enjoy the fruits of his labor.

END

*Guessing here since there is nothing on the wiki for him.


End file.
